THE JRNY 006 - On Starting Over
Hey Reader 👋,
Today's song of the moment is: Home - Scarypoolparty
When I first saw Alejandro's audition on American Idol, I prayed to god that he wouldn't win because I wanted to hear this guy's music and I knew that if he won it, management would probably tank his career and artistry. Sadly though, even after he didn't win, he never really came out with any songs that I'd want to put in my playlist... until this song ! :)
Do You Ever Feel Like Starting Over?
because I do. I think about it all the time. A non-realistic version of this manifests every time I read or watch an Isekai. A genre of anime/manga where the main character gets teleported out of his world (usually, Earth) and lands in a totally new world. In this new world, the MC gets the chance to start a new life and do everything he couldn't in his previous life. The amount of time I thought about getting isekai'd is countless, but, as we all know, that will never happen... (or will it?! ISEKAI GODS, TELEPORT ME NOW IF YOU CAN HEAR MY PRAYERS... well, I'm still here so I guess not haha).
Now, the more realistic way of starting over is to take a suitcase, pack as much shit as possible, buy a one-way ticket to somewhere and never look back. I've also thought about this scenario a couple of times. It's way more realistic than being teleported to a new world, but I love my girlfriend, I love my friends, I love my family. Disappearing halfway across the world isn't something I've yet had the courage to do and, in my opinion, isn't really necessary.
Why Do I Want To Start Over Anyway?
Hmm.... I guess to escape expectations? There's a certain part of me that finds it hard to live according to other people's expectations when all I want to do is try to live my own life. These expectations can come from society, from the time that people spent with me, from my past behaviors and, most importantly, from myself. I just feel like starting over by getting transported to another universe or flying across the world is the easiest to escape these expectations.
But this is where I catch myself. Easiest is the keyword here. I know that these are the easiest methods, but there exists another one. It's much harder, but as a saying goes "Anything worthwhile is going to be hard as fuck". Okay, there probably isn't a saying with those exact words, but I swear there's quote somewhere out there with a similar meaning !
And what's this other method?
Every Day Is an Opportunity to Start Over
Okay, you probably saw this coming away from a mile away, but I didn't even know that I was going to write this cheesy shit haha. Seriously, I started writing this piece out as simply a complaint and a plea to the gods to isekai me outta here, but as I continued writing, a wave of optimism took over and well.. here I am, writing some motivational shit ! hahaha isn't life great. Anyway.
It's true ! Every. Single. Day. is a chance to start over. Think about it, I don't even know how many times I was super moody or felt sad or whatever, went to bed and the next day, I felt like a million bucks (okay, maybe not a million, maybe like a couple hundreds) ! And it's the same thing about everything else. The question we have to ask ourselves is what's missing? Or what's too present? In our day to day lives, if we have this feeling of wanting to start over, it's because there are things that we'd want to be different. What exactly are those things? What would are "perfect" day have? Or wouldn't have?
I think part one of this is to just figure that out. Like what's our "perfect" day? Maybe we won't have everything in place just yet. Maybe we'll just add a few things and remove a few here and there. But even just ONE thing is enough to get started. And once we have something to start with, well, part two is simply to try. Want to procrastinate less? Want to be more active? Don't want to smoke anymore? Start trying to ! Failed the day before? Don't matta. Try again today.
And if we try and try and try every day, we'll eventually hit a day where we actually act like the person we want to be. Maybe it'll be just for that day ! Maybe the next day we'll slip into our old habits again !
But as we try and try and try again, taking each day as a new day, as a new chance to start over, we'll eventually hit that 2nd day... and that 3rd day... and 4th day and one day, hopefully, we'll hit a day where we're like "oh shit, I'm actually the person I want to be" or "oh hell, my day went great ! As perfect as it could be for now".
And that's the day we'll realize that we did start over because we won't be the same person we were before.
PEACE.
Hey you ! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this post.
If you like something in the article or simply want to discuss with me or give me some constructive feedback, feel free to email me @ onlythetruenjhs@gmail.com
We'll talk more next time and until then, don't forget to enjoy your life! ✌️
— Nicholas